Faith affects all aspects of our lives

The Rev. Beau Abernathy, pastor, CrossPointe Church, 4120 Clinton Parkway:

Our faith affects all of life, not just disciplining children. It is not “Christian” and then “life.” It is all of life lived in submission to God’s word, the Bible, under the lordship of Jesus. Our faith influences our family relationships, business practices – everything.

God’s guidebook, the Bible, says the ultimate responsibility for the proper training, discipline and education of our children rests upon the parents (Deuteronomy 6:6-7; Ephesians 6:4). The school and the church are vital to a child’s overall development, but standards, convictions and moral strength should be discussed and implemented at home. According to a recent survey by the Washington Times, most children want to learn moral values from their parents! Of course, values are more caught than taught, and that involves time.

Children are wet cement! Parents need to take seriously the disciplining and nurturing of their children. Here are just a few principles from Proverbs, which is a wonderful, intensely practical guide that contains much wisdom you can impart to your children as you train them in godly living. In the process of teaching these 10 lessons, you’ll unearth many more principles that will serve your children well their entire lives.

Teach your children:

1. To have a healthy fear of God

2. To guard their minds

3. To obey you

4. To carefully select their companions

5. To control their sinful desires

6. To enjoy sexual fidelity

7. To watch their words

8. To pursue their work

9. To manage their money

10. To love their neighbors

– Send e-mail to Beau Abernathy at beaumerna@sbcglobal.net

Moral and spiritual training is essential

Mehdi Khosh, member, Lawrence Baha’i Community:

The answer is yes – the discipline of children is among the most meritorious acts of each Baha’i. The Baha’i faith disapproves of corporal punishment for children. Instead, the focus is on promoting a moral and spiritual education. The Baha’i faith believes that moral, spiritual and values-based training are essential in order to nurture children.

Parents who have strong spiritual backgrounds, including essential virtues such as the knowledge of God, trustworthiness, honesty and justice should utilize those virtues to build a strong moral framework that will assist their children to achieve excellence in material, intellectual and spiritual aspects of life.

Children are born with an innate nobility of spirit and recognition of the spiritual. However, like dreams that vanish in the morning, if they aren’t captured through conscious action this recognition fades and often never returns. It is through the conscious effort of loving families that the spiritual, the unexplained and the wonder can be systematically developed – calling upon the guidance that has been given to humanity by a loving God, our Source of Being.

It is very important that parents themselves set the example for the conduct, morals and values their children are learning. Children learn more by example than through words. If the parents want their children to be truthful, then they must be truthful; if they want their children to be free of racism, then they must also be untainted by it; if they want their children to learn the equality of women and men, then they must show that equality in their dealings with each other.

– Send e-mail to Mehdi Khosh at mehdi@sunflower.com.